PERDIGÃO MALHEIRO AND THE DILEMMAS OF THE REASON AND SLAVERY BINOMIAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE PORTUGUESE-BRAZILIAN STATE

Abstract

Nineteenth-century author of the lengthiest legal work, until then, on slavery as practiced in Brazil, Agostinho Marques Perdigão Malheiro has always been the subject of some controversy among historians. His theses ended up framed in interpretative schemes that resulted in analyses sometimes derogatory, sometimes with inferences detached from the primary set of actual sources consulted by the author. His trajectory as a politician and jurist was scrutinized for setbacks and ambiguities, and even some of the historical statements he made regarding the legal aspects of captivity were placed under suspicion. This text, nonetheless, shifts the analysis of the jurist’s supposed successes, mistakes and personal, intellectual and political commitments to investigate the hypothesis that his most relevant contribution to the construction of Brazil was based on the conviction that slavery was a fundamental problem of the country that should be solved within rational parameters.